Pupils Of Mataheko School Cluster Get Sponsorship From Airtel Ghana

Over forty students and five teachers from the Ablekuma 02 Circuit Schools were among participants who got the opportunity to participate in TEDxAccra held on Saturday 23rd April at the National Theatre. 

The pupils who are beneficiaries of Airtel’s Evolve with STEM initiative were sponsored by the Smartphone Network to attend and learn from the great ideas and experiences shared at the event.

Speaking to Airtel’s decision to sponsor the children to TEDxAccra, Richard Ahiagble, Airtel Ghana’s Head of Corporate Communications said “as one of the most distinguished platforms for sharing breakthrough ideas, we wanted to give our young friends from the Mataheko school cluster an exposure to the transformation they can cause if they put their minds to it and challenge themselves.

At Airtel Ghana, we believe in creating the environment for people to fully realise their potential – especially young people. It was such a delight to see how they were fully engaged throughout the session as they listened to speaker after speaker”.

He continued “The objective of the Evolve with STEM initiative is to inspire hope and transform the mindset of young people towards the study of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). STEM is empowering and instills problem solving skills in young people.

Since the launch of this initiative pupils from the beneficiary schools have benefitted from monthly mentorship sessions with key personalities including our Managing Director Lucy Quist, actress and TV personality, Joselyn Dumas and STEM advocate and Entrepreneur – Ethel Coffie. We have also been supported by partners such as the Exploratory and Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation to make STEM as practical as possible. These efforts are yielding positive results and we are excited about the impact we making with Evolve with STEM”.

Mr. Offei Dodoo, an ICT teacher who attended the event with the students expressed his gratitude to Airtel and the organisers of TEDxAccra for a great event. He said “the talks were very educative, passion-filled and life-changing. The theme, Rethinking, was indeed a very thought-provoking one. It was also great having the students around, the event has broadened their perspective and positively imparted their outlook.”

Some female students under Airtel’s Evolve with STEM initiative also attended the maiden edition of Microsoft’s DigiGirlz Day on 16th April, organized by Microsoft Ghana in collaboration with Airtel Ghana. They interacted with key female personalities such as media entrepreneur, TV & Radio host Anita Erskine, Founder of Nandi Mobile – Anne Amuzu and Founder of Levers in Heels – Larissa Bowen-Dodoo and Managing Director of Airtel, Lucy Quist. Aside the mentoring sessions with these personalities, the young participants were taught basic coding and computer programming in.

Airtel’s Evolve with STEM initiative, since launch in December 2015 has imparted more than 1,000 pupils and inspired hundreds of individuals and companies into action to launch initiatives focused on STEM.